The Indus Civilization c4.7

c4.7

Traces of the occupancy of the Indus Valley people have also been detected at Rupar, a small settlement on the Sutlej, not far from the Simla Hills, and there can be no doubt that other sites farther east and south of Harappa will eventually come to light; in fact, Sir John Marshall is confident that this culture spread to, even if settlements were not actually made in, the Ganges valley. As it is, Harappa lies more than four hundred miles north-east of Mohenjo-daro, while some of the sites in Southern Baluchistan, where pottery of definite Indus Valley make has been found, are as much as one hundred and fifty miles away to the west. The discovery of this pottery, however, does not establish the fact that the civilization which built Mohenjo-daro and Harappa penetrated into Baluchistan to any large extent, and further excavations in that very arid province will be necessary before this point can be settled. It is known that the Indus Valley people carried on a thriving trade with their neighbours, so it is quite possible that some of the commodities they exported were contained in pottery vessels which found their last home on the rubbish-heaps of the Balu chistan settlements. At all events, it can be assumed that the Indus Valley civilization extended south and east of Harappa; as Professor Childe has pointed out, it must have embraced an area immensely larger than either Egypt or Sumer.